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No clue what to do with endives and parsnip? Here are my ideas.

I have mentioned before that we were planing to order biological produce online. We are actually doing that and it’s awesome, because once a week we receive this surprise box with local, seasonal produce. Not only does it taste great, but it forces us to try produce we don’t even know the name of (because I hate wasting food). After a Romanesco broccoli, that we call “fractal broccoli” for obvious reasons, last week we received a huge amount of celery and three endives. We could add celery to soups, but I hate the taste when it’s baked. Now, mind you, those bio celery sticks can not be compared with the huge ones of the super market that are like a bunch of strings glued together. No. The bio celery sticks were small and tender with a great color and a subtle aroma. As for the endives, they looked exactly like the regular ones from the grocery store. I bought endives once and tried to roast them. I must have done it all wrong, because they tasted worse than over-boiled Brussels sprouts. By the way, what’s up with Belgium and all those strange vegetable varieties? (I love you, Belgium).

So I decided to try out both the endives and the celery sticks raw. And here is what I came up with:

Fresher than toothpaste.

Ingredients

2 Belgian endives

9-10 celery stalks

a cup of white (or should I say green?) grapes, cut in half

3 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of one lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Wash all the vegetables really really well.

Finely chop the endives and the celery stalks. You can keep some of the celery leaves as well, if they are tender.

In a big bowl mix the chopped vegetables with the grapes, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Chill for 10 minutes in the fridge

Enjoy!

Now, this week the surprise was parsnips. I ‘ve had parsnips before, in those bags of vegetable chips that you can get at the health food store. I liked the taste but I didn’t feel like thinly slicing and frying the two parsnips of the package, so I decided to roast them instead, like you do with sweet potatoes or carrots. Here is how they turned out:

Yummy!

Ingredients

2 parsnips

3 tablespoons olive oil

Enough salt to sprinkle on all the parsnip fries

Some mustard or other sauce to dip your fries in (optional, obviously)

Instructions

Preheat your oven at 200 C.

Cut the parsnips in French fries shape. Or dice them. Whatever, as long as the pieces are of similar size.